Ivan Lyon was born in Sevenoaks in Kent on 17 August 1915 into a family steeped in military history and Royal connections. Is it then any wonder that his character would become ingrained and shaped by this distinguished heritage?

The Lyon family were proud of the fact that they could trace their lineage back to the thirteenth century.  Robert II, was King of Scotland from 1371 to 1390. His daughter Princess Jean married Sir John Lyon in 1376. Sir John had an estate which included Glamis Castle, home of Macbeth in the eleventh century.  Family descendent David Lyon was killed in the Battle of Flodden in 1513 where the Scots suffered overwhelming defeat by the English. Ivan’s family were cousins of the Bows-Lyons the maiden name of the Queen and consort of King George, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon. As such Ivan Lyon had the privileged entitlement to wear the Royal Stuart Tartan.

Ivan’s ancestors had for generations been soldiers. His father was a Brigadier General in the Royal Field Artillery and had fought at the siege of Ladysmith for which he was awarded a DSO, and went on to fight with gallantry in the battle of the Somme in WW1. Following the cessation of hostilities his father was appointed as a military attache in the Balkans and Brussels. His Grandfather had also served in the Royal Horse Artillery. With such patrimony running through his veins is it any surprise that he should embark on an education that would shape him into a great leader of men?

As a young man in the summer months he would regularly swap his bed to sleep under the stars as he had a love of the outdoors and a dislike of being cooped up and constrained. In the winter his family would take protracted breaks in the Austrian Tyrol where he would become an extremely competent skier, regularly pushing the boundaries off piste.

Ivan was dispatched to West Downs prep school whose founders had strong ties with the military and Royal Navy and developed young men for a future in the services. In 1929 Ivan was accepted into Harrow passing through the same entrance Winston Churchill had just forty years earlier. Ivan would go on to become a cross country running champion, he developed a passion for sailing and played rugby in the back row for his house, West Acre. At Harrow he had a reputation as a first class sportsman. Mr Gannon, Ivan’s house master encouraged Ivan to develop his sailing skills. This had long been established as a means of development for individuals who showed strong leadership potential. At the age of seventeen Ivan single handedly took a sailing canoe across the north sea successfully reaching Denmark. A voyage of over 700 nautical miles.  In 1933 Lyon embarked on a sailing voyage captained by Master Mariner Captain Inskip along with six fellow hand picked pupils from Harrow. The vessel they would sail was what must have seemed to them as gargantuan, an 18 ton pilot cutter yacht called Amy. The voyage would see them tested to the limit in typical Harrow tradition sailing along the south coast to the notorious waters off southern Cornwall. It was here that they encountered what was described in the school magazine as, ‘a very severe squall’ just off the Lizard, the most south westerly point of England. Over the years more than fifty ships and their crews had foundered and succumbed to the seas in these highly erratic and unpredictable waters. Ivan would later state that ‘the cruise on Amy instilled in him a love of the sea.’That love of the sea would remain with him throughout his life.

In the summer of 1934 Hitler was appointed Chancellor and declared himself Fuhrer of all Germany. At or about the same time a young Ivan Lyon undertook the entry exam for a Commission in the Royal Navy. At interview it is recorded that ‘Ivan was a rather individual thinker’ and did not give the expected answers to questions posed by the Naval Board at Dartmouth. Having failed in his attempt he was encouraged by his father to apply to enter the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. Having succeeded and graduated, newly commissioned in 1936 he embarked on the troopship Dorchester bound for Singapore as a member of the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders. Ivan did not take kindly to the prosaic nature of regimental life. Whilst an extremely effective and efficient young officer he would manifest tendencies which clearly had seen him fail in his attempt to join the Royal Navy. He developed a loathing for garrison life and endless duties and protocols. Whilst always loyal to the regiment he would entertain his older sister Ann Gordon, who was married to an Australian naval officer, recounting tales of hordes of mothers and their daughters who sidled into the officers mess in search of eligible young men. Of these ladies who were so attracted to young Gordon Highlander Officers, he said ‘they must all wear Harris tweed nightdresses’.

Lyon’s first impression of Singapore was that he had landed in a treasure trove, an eclectic multicultural mix, a true melting pot. Walking the backstreets through cramped alleyways he would soak up the mix of cultures defined by aromas from indigenous cooking, seeing heated exchanges between Chinese men playing Mah Jong, Ivan would learn that livelihoods were won and lost over such games. Essentially he discovered that the island of Singapore was made up of many kampongs (villages) containing different cultures from Chinese, Malay and Indians. Singapore was a hub, a cross roads, this is what made it such a strategic location for the British who in the main were living in their own personal nirvana. The north of the island was the domaine of the white privileged colonialists. Ivan preferred the kampongs of the south where he could find a backstreet bar and drink ice cold beer and soak up the local mix of cultures. He was particularly drawn to an area called Little India. It was here when one night after consuming a considerable number of Tiger beers he ended up in a tattoo parlour. After an agonising three hours he emerged with a large colourful  tigers head tattoo emblazoned on his chest stretching from his neck almost to his waist. To him Singapore was a base from which he could explore cultures, islands and countries. The only thing holding him back from immersing himself in this cauldron of stimulation was the servitude of regimental life, inspecting soldiers kit, taking parade, and the formality of officers mess life. Rescue came in the form of a seasoned officer who too had a love of the far east. This would be the start of Ivan Lyon being drawn into the murky dealings of the intelligence services. Lieutenant Colonel Hayley Bell had been an MI5 appointment to take up post in Singapore as Defence Security Officer. His appointment was highly unpopular among senior military commanders and clearly showed there was a developing unease among British security circles in relation to the situation in Singapore. He was known as an old China hand, born in Shanghai to a colonial privileged family he had fought in the Boer War, in WW1 at Passchendaele and the Somme, twice mentioned in despatches and awarded a DSO. He had been placed in Singapore to assess the emerging risk of a Japanese invasion. He set about recruiting like minded bright, young and highly intelligent army officers as operatives. From this network Hayley Bell would pass back assessments of the Singapore Garrisons state of preparedness to London. His first task was to hunt down Japanese spies in Singapore who were operating with almost impunity, passing back intelligence and information to Tokyo. An excellent judge of character he spotted Ivan Lyon and immediately saw great potential. Ivan demonstrated all the characteristics that were required for the task in hand.  Careful negotiation saw Lyon seconded from the Gordon Highlanders and recruited into Hayley Bell’s intelligence service, Ivan was now in his element. Soon after his arrival in Singapore Ivan had purchased a substantial ocean going yacht called Vinette. Pouring over the admiralty charts of South East Asia it was  as if  his dreams had come true, he was embarking on an adventure that only a number of years earlier, he could never have imagined. Part of Hayley Bell plan to highlight the unpreparedness of the Singapore establishment was to task Ivan Lyon to stage a mock attack using their operatives on Singapore key facilities. This was done in an honest attempt to convince Singapore’s Commanders that rather than being invincible, as they still thought they were, in truth they were extremely vulnerable. If the establishment had taken note of Hayley Bell and the result of his staged attack and warnings, the fate of Singapore and the Pacific war could have been very different. Instead he was sacked following complaints from Singapores leaders to London. They tried to justify their reason stating ‘He used unorthodox methods not contained in any Sandhurst manual and ordered summary justice.’ Senior military commanders in Singapore had been informed that Hayley Bell’s operatives had been summarily executing Japanese spies, which was not seen to be cricket.

Ivan Lyon in between hunting down spies in the back alleys of Singapore was encouraged to familiarise himself with the waters around Singapore and sail Vinette north, up the east coat of Malaya all the way to French Indo-China, across the Gulf of Thailand. This was to familiarise himself with the topography and likely landing sights for the Japanese, if they were to attack from mainland Malaya. One such foray saw him put into the island of Paulo Condor, a French penal colony where he met and almost immediately fell in love with a young French beauty called Gabrielle. Lyon was soon married and he brought his sophisticated wife and introduced her to life in Singapore, where she soon fell pregnant and gave Ivan a son they named Clive. On meeting Gabrielle’s father Georges Bouvier, the Governor of the penal colony Clive soon established that he was no supporter of the Vichy French, who had essentially done a deal with the Japanese in Indo China, similar to the Vichy French pact with Hitler in France. Georges agreed to pass any intelligence or information to Ivan in Singapore on troop movements or Japanese intentions, that he could establish. Whilst this was a tremendous opportunity to have insight into activity in this vital area, it was in fact a deed which cost Gabrielle’s mother and fathers lives. Georges was discovered by the Japanese and Vichy French to be passing information to the British. The Vichy French beat them mercilessly to death in acts said to impress their Japanese allies.

In 1941 Ivan Lyon was recruited to the newly formed Special Operations Executive Orient Mission. Their objectives is to train stay behind teams in the art of sabotage and subterfuge when and if the Japanese were to take Singapore. They recruited local operatives from the Chinese community who had a natural hatred for the Japanese. Fresh in their minds  was the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing  massacre in 1937. News of this had spread through Asia like wildfire. The Japanese army had undertaken six weeks of mass murder, looting and rape which resulted in the death of 300,000 Chinese. SOE knew exactly what the Japanese Imperial Army were capable of and what would become of Malaya and Singapore if they succeeded. The Chinese were seen as far better adversaries against the Japanese than the Malay population who were seen as more easy going and passive.

Still the atmosphere in Singapore was one of colonial somnolence, sleepwalking into a total disaster. As far back as 1936, the Military Commander in Singapore, Major General Sir William Dobbie, presented a report turning on its head the defensibility of Singapore. It concluded that the so called ‘impenetrable jungle’ of Malaya was indeed passable, that an attack would come via the Malay peninsula and that the monsoon would give the enemy cloud cover and reduce any chance of attack from the air.

Events were developing at pace in Singapore, the establishment including the Governor of Singapore and military commanders were putting a telescope to a blind eye. The news of the sinking of the pride of the British Navy Prince of Wales and Repulse  with the loss of 840 lives creates a shock wave and was a pre-cursor of what was to come. The British War Cabinet who knew Singapore was indefensible are in denial. Churchill is facing a second Gallipoli. SOE operatives including my father were fully aware of what was about to unfold. Ivan was tasked to set up escape routes from Singapore through the islands to Sumatra, from where they may be rescued by the Royal Navy and merchant vessels. Colonel Alan Warren had summoned Ivan and ordered him to pull a team together establishing a plan to support an evacuation. Warren had previous experience of what such mayhem could result in having been involved in the evacuation of Dunkirk. His final instructions to Ivan Lyon was to get a reliable operative with some medical skills. He soon arranged to meet my father Ron Morris SOE whose parent regiment was the Royal Army Medical Corps. Ivan had met my father whilst they were jointly involved in training stay behind operatives. Knowing the situation was becoming very dangerous Ivan bid farewell to his beloved Gabrielle and young son Clive and put them on a ship bound for Australia.

The rest as they say, is history. My father and Lyon alone on an island south of Singapore could see chaos unfold as flotillas of ships and small vessels sail south to escape the carnage. For just over three weeks they guide, assist and aid hundreds of those fortunate enough to have escaped. They try and give dignified burials to those who didn’t make it whilst at the same time caring for the severely injured. When they are eventually told that Singapore has capitulated in the most humiliating defeat ever suffered by the British, they set sale for Sumatra in an attempt to secure their own escape. In doing so and sailing up the Indragiri, the deepest river running into Sumatra they bump into a steely Australian character Bill Reynolds, he tells his tale to Lyon and Morris over a bottle of whiskey. The little Japanese fishing boat Reynolds escaped from the mayhem of Singapore in, and evacuated over a thousand people, had remained untouched. This planted a seed in Ivan’s mind that would propagate over the coming months. Lyon and Morris then  sail across the Bay of Bengal at a time of year when the great tea clippers of a bygone era would not sail because of the cyclonic weather. Eventually arriving in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Lyon sells his concept of striking back at the Japanese to the Commanding Officer of SOEs Force 136 In Ceylon. This strike he proposes to be on the first anniversary of the surrender of Singapore 15 February 1943, sending a defiant message and maximum humiliation to the Japanese captors, who hold over 100,000 POWs.

Bill Reynolds miraculously sails his Japanese fishing boat through the Strait of Malacca, now occupied by the Japanese and across the Bay of Bengal to India, where he meets with Ivan. Together they cement their thoughts and aspirations for a return visit to Singapore. Operation Jaywick as it had been named, is given the green light by SOE HQ, Baker Street in London. Belatedly Ivan’s plan of mounting the attack from Ceylon or India is turned down by SOE. Instead Australia is chosen to train an elite team at a secret camp. Such secrecy would be very difficult to maintain in India or Ceylon. Ivan was ordered to Australia, tragically it was too late to stop Gabrielle and Clive from departing for India. Ivan had sent a message to Gabrielle in Australia to join him in Ceylon from where he thought he would be staying to mount Operation Jaywick. Ivan was then informed the ship his wife and son were on is lost at sea.

Those around Ivan Lyon cannot believe that he has the ability and strength of purpose to carry on. His next step is to fly to Bombay to get his colleague Ron Morris released from regimental servitude, back serving in a British military hospital. Ron’s natural empathic nature understands his loss. He has great respect and knows Ivan’s stoicism and determination will help him cope with this tragedy.

Summary

Ivan Lyon has been called many things, single minded, lone wolf, mercurial and stoic. He was a man that commanded tremendous loyalty and respect. He was able to keep a level head under extreme pressure and was also fearless. Admiral Christie of the United States Navy, said following the success of Operation Jaywick, ‘Ivan Lyon is an extremely brave man, possibly the bravest man I have ever met.’ High praise from an American who was part of the US establishment who were highly sceptical of British intentions to try to claw back their Empire post WW2.

The team that would eventually embark on Operation Jaywick were trained to a standard of technical knowledge and physical fitness never undertaken before. They were truly the pioneers of how special forces would evolve in the future. Ivan’s achievements from his youth to Sandhurst would almost single him out for such a destiny. His foresight in envisioning the potential to sail so far behind enemy lines in what would become  Operation Jaywick was singularly his. The fact that he was able to convince a totally orthodox and sceptical hierarchy beggared belief. He was able to raise the funds from SOE in London, express his vision of how this might just work and win over American and Australian Military leaders, to support his vision. The success of Operation Jaywick would shape Special Forces doctrine in the future.

Such tactics allow effective engagement of the materially weak against the materially strong. Audacity and daring carefully planned and executed can have a devastating effect on a strong and arrogant enemy.

50 miles behind the lines there was some activity but 500 miles behind the lines it was quiet. This philosophy was also adopted by the SAS Long Range Desert Groups in North Africa.

Perhaps the pen-ultimate word should go to Lord Selbourn the Head of SOE in London when he wrote to Ivan Lyons father following his sons tragic death.

The first publication of this letter is fully transcribed in the Enhanced Edition of the Tiger’s Revenge 2025

I tried to get your son the V.C. and spoke and wrote several times to General Sir Thomas Blamey about it as his recommendation had to come through his Australian Command.

I believe that my efforts failed because the rules lay it down that there must be three witnesses, whereas in his case there was only one, yet in my opinion Col Lyon likely deserved to have received the VC. I formed the conclusion that he was absolutely fearless.  I was fully astounded that he had been awarded the D.S.O. instead. I only met him once when he came to see me in my Ministry and he talked for about an hour. I have seldom been so much impressed by any young man.

I felt that he was of that stamp that had made England great, and that a great future awaited him. It was not merely his training which made me feel that: it was his character. I felt a blend of will and genius + integrity in him. When he walked out of the room I said to myself, ‘That young man will be famous one day’. It was not to be.  Death has claimed some of the very finest of his generation as we did of the last.

Ivan Lyon picked a team of totally loyal, extremely able and courageous individuals and led them to achieve something that many thought was hare-brained or impossible.

Evan Morris MBE